Paradigms of Knowledge

After several weeks of arduous study, Master's students in my Proseminar in Mass Communication Research class defined 3 different paradigms of knowledge "in their own words" as the lawyers like to say. As the students' work shows, different basic beliefs guide how one asks questions, how one seeks for answers and how, indeed, one recognizes an answer.  If you have any questions or comments regarding the students' explanations, leave them in the comments section of this entry.

POST POSITIVISM

·Reality is real and can be understood through empirical research

·Social insights can and should be improved upon through social scientific methodologies

·Allows for reformulations and replication of existing theories

·Research strives for objectivity

CRITICAL THEORY

·Reality is contextual

·Suggests that ideology equals power, the power to describe and live events in a particular way in which to ensure social norms (hegemony)

·Social structures are analyzed (textual analysis/historical) to empower the disenfranchised

POST-MODERNISM

·Rejects singular truth values/representations and proposes multiple truths, showing them by juxtaposed voices and observations